2014 USPS Issues... News? Thoughts? Opinions?

wt1 I assume the statement you made at the end of your post Quote "I know it's a typo, but you've got to wonder who "Charleston" Heston is!)Unquote. That statement is a joke I assume.

I thought he was being funny.
Tom

Yeah, it was a joke. Obviously, the name should have read Charlton Heston.

Since it doesn't seem to have been posted yet, here's today's USPS stamp "unveiling" of the Priority Mail Rate Stamp featuring the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge. Although no date or location of issue has been scheduled, the previously posted list suggests sometime in March 2014 (and one would be safe to assume it will most certainly be issued in New York):



http://uspsstamps.com/stamps/verraz...rrows-bridge

I like that one, too... Typical, the stamps I like are the $$ ones...

Today's (12/17/2013) USPS Stamp Unveiling:

Lunar New Year (Year of the Horse)



http://uspsstamps.com/stamps/year-horse-0

Not too fond of that design. Could be worse, I guess. Ever since they stopped showing the actual animal on the Lunar New Year stamps, the designs seem out of place.

I love the designs on the high value Priority Mail series, ever since the beginning. I see very little sense in the Lunar New Year stamps. I think if I wanted to collect those I would save Chinese stamps!

Peter

For those interested in the upcoming Lunar New Year Stamps, it's being reported on another stamp website that the date of issue will be January 15, 2014 in San Francisco, CA.

The other interesting point is that the quantity of stamps is only 17,600,400. This is considerably less than usual given that the 2013 Lunar New Year stamp was issued in a quantity of 31.2 million and the 2012 Lunar New Year Stamp was issued in a quantity of 72 million.

Since Lunar New Year Stamps may only be sold as full panes of 12, the 2014 issue becomes only 1,466,700 panes available, less the 5000 press sheets of 9 (2500 w/die cuts and 2500 w/o die cuts) which represents 45,000 panes, that reduces the available number of single panes even further to only 1,421,700 panes for the entire issue, which is really quite low for a commemorative issue.

Perhaps the USPS is paying closer attention to their costs?
Tom

Either that, or interest in the Lunar New Year Stamps are waning. There's also the date thing, as the Lunar New Year starts well before the rather late date of issue, so it's appeal may not be as great for the intended audience.

Just my 2¢; I really like the Lunar New Year series and the 2014 design is one of my favorites. I don't collect many modern SA's, only some of the commemorative full panes that I find especially interesting. The 2008-2019 Lunar New Year series is in that category for me. I like them much better than the 1992-2004 series.

The latest stamp unveiling is for "Ferns" ... available with five different designs but only in large coils of 3000 and 10,000 typically designated for business users, although they will almost certainly be available in smaller quantity strips for collectors through SFS.

New for 2014 is that these large volume coils for the first time will be designated "Forever" stamps (rather than being denominated):



http://uspsstamps.com/stamps/ferns

The ferns do absolutely nothing for me.
Tom

Just as an update about the "Ferns" stamp announcement, it has been taken down from the USPS Stamps website along with this notation: